[Wikipedia-l] what people I know have to say about

Mon Nov 25 23:09:31 UTC 2002

Pax to your Thanksgiving, Jimbo.  Please accept that
this is not about Lir, but rather just about
nomenclature and an attempt to support the way we've
been doing things.

I just read with interest what Lir's friends have to
say about the anglicisation (for you, Steve) of
foreign words.  I also looked at what Lir had to say. 
Based on that, I am even more convinced that the
article titles should remain in English.  They are
completely valid words in English.  Moreover, I was
just thinking about what we do with  foreign names in
English.  Often it's true that the names were changed
or misspelt or otherwise mutilated at Ellis Island. 
Sometimes, though, the bearers of those names changed
them -- or their pronunciation -- to make them sound
more "American" (I think the same is true in England).
 When one correctly pronounces those names (as I did
after living in Germany for several years), one is
often the immediate giver of offense.  

Furthermore, when I think back to the old days of
"it's Prussia," "No, it's Poland," (the argument was
over what name to use for cites which spent much of
their history as part of Prussia, but are presently
located in Poland) the only way to come to a
reasonable agreement was to rely on what English
speakers most normally (and currently) use.  

As for leading through good example -- I have to ask
about this.  As I understand Lir's argument, he says:
It's correct to use the local name for a place,
because we should be more sensitive to others, 

But speakers of other languages may in fact not do
this(I personally know people who speak French,
German, and Spanish as their native languages -- they
all use that language's version of US when speaking
the respective language)

If these other-language-speakers don't practice the
"local-name-use" rule, then they aren't behaving as
they should, BUT, we should be better than they are
and lead by example -- then they may catch on.

Can we please leave it alone, and accept that
languages reflect a good many things, but that, unless
terms are not translatable, it's best to try and speak
one language at a time in the Pedia?   

Jules

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com